


An Outside Perspective

by Lysippe



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games (Movies)
Genre: F/F, ahhh I remember the days of being given countless AU requests, lol, when all i wanted was to write canon angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-07
Updated: 2014-02-07
Packaged: 2019-09-12 06:33:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16867930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lysippe/pseuds/Lysippe
Summary: Prompt: AU where Katniss gets jealous and worries when Johanna has to have dinner with an attractive colleague; she invites an unknowing Annie to dinner at the same restaurant to spy and hijinks ensue. Johanna finds out and reprimands Katniss. Annie POV.





	An Outside Perspective

I don’t know why Katniss was so insistent on us going to dinner at this particular restaurant. I don’t think it’s either of our idea of a good night - which for us is usually just pizza and bad science fiction movies with Johanna and Finnick (even though Johanna always complains and the real entertainment is her and Finnick bickering the entire time over the quality of the movie). 

Yet here we are, in a moderately upscale restaurant, dressed in slightly-nicer-than-usual clothing and and ordering off a menu where half the entrees are foods I have never heard of in a language I don’t speak. Places like these make me so self-conscious. I don’t do fancy settings well, and I probably look about as out-of-place as I feel. Nonetheless, I am attempting conversation, but Katniss doesn’t seem to want to take the bait. She just keeps glancing towards the door like she’s expecting someone, and it’s making me nervous.

“If you changed your mind about hanging out, you can just say so,” I say, trying to make my tone as un-bitchy as I can. “I won’t be offended.” And it’s true, I won’t be offended. Irritated that she made me get dressed up for nothing, sure, but not offended. Maybe I’ll make her buy me dinner elsewhere to make up for it. We aren’t really friends or anything - I’m just her girlfriend’s best friend’s girlfriend. Sure, we hang out, but only in a group setting.

Katniss looks stricken, and I feel a little guilty. “No! I want to hang out,” she assures me, looking towards the door again. This time, though, her eyes widen slightly, and I follow her gaze. 

Sure enough, Johanna has just walked through the door, a handsome young man with dark hair and the kind of easy smile that makes me instantly wary by her side. And suddenly, the pieces fall into place. “What’s going on here?” I ask, pretty sure I already know the answer.

Katniss tries to shrug it off, but she is almost as out-of-place here as I am, and she just looks awkwardly guilty instead. “Johanna’s been talking about this dinner with Gale Hawthorne for weeks. He’s some big shot contractor, I guess.” 

“You’re jealous!” I laugh. I feel a lot better now, even if I am being used as spy bait. At least this evening is going to be awkward and uncomfortable for both of us. Katniss looks like she is about to protest, but I cut her off. “Don’t even try to deny it. You are jealous of her handsome young business partner. God, Katniss, do you have  _any_  idea how gay your girlfriend is?”

“I know, I know. Fine, maybe I’m a little jealous,” Katniss mutters, looking distinctly disgruntled.

“Uh huh. Maybe a little a lot. So, what’s the plan?” I ask.

“I don’t know… we eat dinner and spy on them?” Katniss shrugs.

“Is that the best you’ve got? Remind me never to let you plan anything.” We’re not quite close enough friends that I feel comfortable teasing her, but she’s dating Johanna, so I figure she has to be able to put up with some amount of fun at her expense.

“Well, I don’t usually spy on my girlfriend, so excuse me for not exactly being an expert on the topic,” Katniss says indignantly.

I can’t help laughing at her, and part of me is even a little glad that I’m here. Our interactions have always been through Johanna and Finnick, but getting to know her, I actually find myself pretty at ease in her company, and that’s not something I can say for many people. “Whatever. Thankfully they’re seated kind of far away, and I don’t think Johanna saw us coming in. We should probably just watch from here, though. Either of us walking past their table would be too risky.”

“Well aren’t you just the evil mastermind?” Katniss laughs, poking at me with a breadstick. Clearly, I am not the only one who isn’t civilized enough for this restaurant.

Dinner passes without much to report. I have no idea what I ordered - it was something French and tasted okay, but the portions were tiny and it certainly wasn’t worth what Katniss promised to pay for it. Johanna and her work date seem to be playing things by the book, though Johanna is smiling more than I have ever seen her before, and it’s a little unnerving. Gale placed his hand on Johanna’s arm once, but she shook her head and pulled away, and he didn’t try again. At some point, I guess Katniss became sufficiently reassured that whatever she was worried about was a non-issue, and our attention drifted away from Johanna, which explains why neither of us noticed her approach. We are both laughing at the slightly off-color joke I repeated from Finnick when Johanna clears her throat loudly.

Katniss looks up at her girlfriend’s decidedly unamused expression and smiles nervously. “Hi, Jo,” she says sheepishly, knowing she has been busted.

“Fancy meeting you two here,” Johanna drawls, looking down at us. It has always baffled me how someone so small can be so imposing, but I feel distinctly like a child caught with their hand in the cookie jar right now, and Johanna is clearly loving every second of it.

“Katniss and I were just getting to know each other a little better,” I supply, as though that will make our ruse any less transparent.

“Yes, I can see that,” Johanna raises an eyebrow. “Good for you two. Awfully coincidental, though, don’t you think, that you decided to ‘get to know each other’ at the same restaurant I had a work engagement at?”

Katniss squirms uncomfortably in her seat, not making eye contact.

“I saw you when I came in, you know,” Johanna continues, unperturbed. “You two have all the subtlety of a tornado.” She grabs a chair from an unoccupied table nearby and sits down at our table. I guess she’s here to stay. 

“So… how was your dinner?” I ask, trying to change the topic. It won’t work, but I figure at least I tried.

“Oh, you know,” Johanna waves a hand dismissively. “Work stuff, pretending I’m a nice person and like I actually give a shit about all of his accomplishments. I swear to god, all male engineers are the same. Meet a woman in the field and they either figure she’s gay or immediately hit on her. This one guessed wrong,” she rolls her eyes dramatically.

“Well, I mean, you could go either way,” I say, and it’s true. Johanna may be brash and ballsy, but in her nice green dress with her makeup done and her hair actually styled, she looks just like every other attractive heterosexual woman in here tonight. 

“I literally mentioned my girlfriend on multiple occasions!” Johanna protests.

Katniss looks surprised. “You did?”

“Of course I did,” Johanna sighs. “It’s called small talk, and as much as I hate it, it’s kind of expected. You’re a major part of my life, so you came up.”

“Oh.” Katniss at least has the decency to look somewhat ashamed, I suppose, even if she did come up with the harebrained idea of spying on Johanna to begin with. 

“Yeah, oh,” Johanna says, resting her chin on her hands. “What did you think I was going to do, get swept off my feet by the mysterious handsome stranger and run away with him? Even if I  _were_  into men, the chances of that are still less than none.”

“I know,” Katniss says softly. “I don’t know what I was thinking.”

“Obviously,” Johanna agrees. “This is why we never let you make the plans. And I’m guessing poor Annie just got dragged along for company?”

“Poor Annie got a free meal, even if she did have to get dressed up for it, so I don’t think I’m doing too badly,” I volunteer.

“Well, at least you were compensated for your troubles, even if the food here isn’t enough to feed a rabbit,” Johanna says, drawing her attention back to Katniss, who is still staring guiltily at her empty plate. “Seriously, though. You don’t ever need to be jealous. I  _love_ you, brainless. And given that I can’t stand pretty much everyone else in the world, you don’t have a lot of competition anyway.”

“I’m sorry. I know I went a little crazy tonight,” Katniss looks genuinely upset as Johanna’s hand grasps hers and squeezes gently, and I find myself very much aware of the fact that I am intruding on a rather personal moment, but I can’t think of a way to excuse myself without drawing attention to that fact.

“Water under the bridge,” Johanna waves her hand dismissively, and it is clear that, to her, the topic is settled. “Now, are you ladies about ready to go? Because I am  _starving_ , and I’m thinking pizza sounds pretty good right now.”

Her ability to just move on from things really is astounding sometimes, but then, that’s Johanna for you. Her anger hits hard, but it dissipates quickly under the right circumstances, and she has a much bigger soft spot for Katniss than she lets on. I don’t understand the dynamic between them at all, but it seems to work for them, so I guess who am I to judge?

“I am  _so_  up for pizza,” Katniss says, suddenly animated once more. “Annie? Want to pick up Finnick and come over for pizza and sci fi?”

I have to smile. Part of me thinks Katniss is just being polite, not wanting to exclude me from their plans, but she and Johanna both seem genuinely enthused about the idea, so I grab my keys. “Good thing I drove. And since you’re paying for dinner,” I flash a smile at Katniss as I stand, “I will pick up Finnick and the pizza and see you soon.”

“Take your time. “We might be…  _otherwise engaged_  for a while,” Johanna says meaningfully.

“Thanks for the warning,” I laugh as I turn and walk out the restaurant. It may be weird, but anyone with eyes can see that Johanna and Katniss, for all their bullheadedness, really do love each other, and I find that oddly comforting.

**Author's Note:**

> Join me on Tumblr @ thebestdressedrebelinhistory


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